Individual semiconductor devices are typically created by fabricating numerous chips, or “die” on a semiconductor substrate, or “wafer.” The process of die creation is called “wafer processing.” Following the completion of wafer-level processing, the completed wafers are separated into many individual die, through a process called “dicing.” The dicing process typically involves cutting through the wafer using a rotary blade saw. This process requires special equipment including, for instance, diamond impregnated saw blades, which have a limited lifetime. In addition, because of the limitations inherent in such a mechanical process, defects such as cracks sometimes appear at the edges of the die. Because of the very small size of the die, which could be 200 μm or less per side, the cracks could propagate into the active regions of the device. Moreover, the saw-blade cutting process is time-consuming and results in high material losses, through the creation of a kerf by the saw blade. Finally, the sawing process typically requires some type of coolant be applied during sawing. The coolant and residual particles from the sawing process must be cleaned off of the wafer surface after sawing. This exposes the completed die to potential liquid contaminants. As a result, the current die separation process is expensive and may impact the quality or even the functionality of the chip. This is especially true with respect to mechanically stable substrate materials such as silicon carbide (SiC). It is, therefore, desirable to find a dicing process based on currently-used unit processes and which is inexpensive and does not negatively impact the quality of the die.
Currently, mechanical sawing is used for the separation of semiconductor chips, such as in the wafer dicing of silicon carbide SiC based products, e.g. SiC based chips, e.g. SiC based dies, e.g. chips manufactured on SiC or SiC substrates. The current approach results in extremely high processing costs. Mechanical sawing of SiC may result in damages, e.g. crack formation, which may negatively impact performance and yield. Furthermore, the sawing process is extremely expensive and may impact the quality or even the functionality of the chip. To reduce processing costs and to improve the quality of dies, a novel approach for chip separation of SiC-based chips is proposed.